The local group of the Cyclists Touring Club, part of Cycling UK, the UK's national cycling charity. Websites http://www.cyclinguk.org/ http://www.essexcycling.co.uk/chelmsfordcity/ Contact Secretary Adrian Leeds leeds.adrian@gmail.com

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Month: July 2014

A bright humid morning attracted 10 of us to the start at the Town Hall for a ride led by Dave Southan. We had a fairly uneventful but very enjoyable ride via High Easter, High Roding, Hellman’s Cross, Taverner’s Green and Hatfield Broad Oak for elevenses at the Post Office tearooms. Dave included an off-road section around Clatterford End which was great, except for those who ended up with mudguards jammed with mud!

Sadly we saw some diabolical driving by impatient drivers trying to overtake on narrow lanes when we were in single file. On two occasions the drivers passed our line on blind bends and in one case almost demolished a lone cyclist coming the other way. Shocking behaviour!

9 Riders near Great Canfield (I’m missing as usual, taking the photo with my mobile phone)

(Click on image to enlarge it)

After elvenses 4 riders returned to Chelmsford and 6 of us went on to Dane End – quite a hard ride over the lumpy but very attractive Hertfordshire countryside. We enjoyed lunch in the excellent village pub before setting off for the homeward leg which because all the teashops in the Sawbridgeworth area seem to shut around 3pm, was done in one stretch. In Sawbridgeworth we could hear thunder and see lightning to the southeast and knew we were going to get wet. However although we had to negotiate flooded roads we didn’t catch up with the rain until after Matching Green by which time it was quite light and even quite refreshing on this very warm day.

My Strava record is complete only as far as Sawbridgeworth on the return as I seem to have managed to turn it off at that point. Here is the link to it:

Very heavy rain over the breakfast period and a poor forecast cut numbers again and only 4 of us started from the Town Hall, led by Dave R. We waited for Dianna to arrive from Billericay as she had been hampered by the atrocious weather and then set off for elevenses at the Blue Egg via Little Waltham, Little Leighs and Rayne. A puncture delayed us again and we arrived at the Blue Egg at 11:20 where we met up with John and Margaret.

We then all headed for Castle Camps via Steeple Bumpstead. This was not uneventful with a drenching in the Finchingfield area, one more puncture and a navigation error which resulted in John and Margaret and Delia putting in a few extra miles (how this happened is too complicated to explain here!).

The homeward leg under bright skies took us to Andrewsfield for tea after which we headed back to Chelmsford having covered 71 miles.

Turnout today was limited by rival attractions, not least le Tour stage 2 in Yorkshire. However we enjoyed a good ride in fine weather via Terling and Witham for elevenses at Perrywoods. Lunch at the Buskin and Donkey was excellent as usual and we then made our way to the Museum of Power at Langford before heading back to Chelmsford to watch our videos of Le Tour! 58 miles in all.